When Howard Livingston and the Mile Marker 24 Band step onstage to perform their trademark tropical rock tunes, they bring along an unusual “instrument”: a 1952 Johnson 5.5-horsepower outboard motor used to blend margaritas for the audience.
ABC News personality Ginger Zee, left, and Howard Livingston use an antique outboard motor to blend margaritas during a national broadcast segment in the island chain. (Photo by Andy Newman, Florida Keys News Bureau)
Odd as it might appear, the funky hybrid blender is the perfect accompaniment to the band’s infections melodies, which bear titles like “Blame It On The Margaritas” and “Livin’ On Key West Time.”
Yet even more appealing than the margaritas is the passion Howard projects with every lyric he sings and every chord he strums — a passion for the Florida Keys that, many years ago, inspired the dissatisfied Chicago manufacturing company owner to become a carefree, fulfilled musician who lives on the water in the Lower Keys.
Howard first visited the Keys in the early 1980s. A sailing enthusiast who had a boat on Lake Michigan, he rented a sailboat in Islamorada and began exploring the area.
“I went up and down the Keys and fell in love,” he said. “Every waking moment from that point on was spent in wondering, ‘How do I move there? How do I live there?’”
In the early 1990s, Howard bought a piece of land on Summerland Key and built a house. Though still tied to his northern corporate life, over the years he spent increasing amounts of time escaping to Summerland.
Howard, his wife Cyndy and engineer Jake Burns (standing) pause during a recording session in Jimmy Buffett’s Shrimpboat Sound Studio in Key West. (Photo by J.L. Jamison)
“I just felt like the Keys were the place I should be,” Howard recalled.
While he came from a musical family and enjoyed writing songs, he had put his love of music on hold for most of his adult life. Then, during a business trip to China, his yearning for the Keys inspired him to write a song he named “Livin’ On Key West Time.”
Lighthearted and melodic, it would become one of his signature tunes and the title of his first CD.
The song helped crystallize Howard’s desire to live the Keys lifestyle full-time. Eventually he moved permanently to the house on Summerland, located near mile marker 24 on the Overseas Highway that spans the island chain. The move gave him the freedom and inspiration he needed to launch his music career.
Today, Howard and his Mile Marker 24 Band have released 11 CDs, earned nearly a dozen prestigious Trop Rock Music Association awards, and achieved renown both regionally and around the U.S.
In great part, he says, that’s because the music is an expression of the Florida Keys experience.
“Being in the Keys is the biggest single influence on me as a person and on my music,” he explained. “We probably don’t realize how fortunate we are to live here, because just about everybody in the world wants to be doing what we’re doing — whether they’re a doctor or a lawyer or a street cleaner.”
Howard, Cyndy and their dog Anderson share a quiet moment by the water. (Photo by Rob O’Neal)
In fact, one of Howard’s greatest songwriting challenges is distilling the Keys’ attitude and atmosphere into three or four minutes of music and lyrics.
“That is the most difficult thing to do,” he admitted. “I can sit down and write a song about the Keys that can be 20 minutes long, and I wouldn’t have started talking about how wonderful it is.”
To make the process manageable, Howard focuses on capturing small snapshots of Keys life — a life he shares with his soulmate, wife Cyndy — and his island experiences. He and the band have revealed those snapshots to national audiences during performances on programs including CBS’ “The Early Show” and ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
Whether his listeners are television audiences, concert–goers or CD purchasers, Howard hopes the music will evoke one fundamental emotion in them: happiness.
“We just want it to be feel-good music, and perhaps a little bit of escapism,” he said. “No matter how crazy the world gets, that warm, safe, tropical place of the Florida Keys is always there.”
To learn more about the man whose music captures the essence of margarita–kissed days in the island chain, just click here.
